Dan Walters: Parcel tax changes could be big battle in California Legislature – The Legislature’s Democratic leaders want to use their newly minted supermajorities to do things that they could not do before, but are leery of doing things that might alienate voters and jeopardize those supermajorities.They prefer, therefore, an incremental approach to using their two-thirds legislative votes, thus slowly warming voters to the exercise of their new power, rather than shocking them.One likely way they’ll wield their new authority is a constitutional amendment to reduce the voter approval margin for local government and school district parcel taxes from two-thirds to either a simple majority or 55 percent.

Getting around California Proposition 13 – One would hope that the Proposition 30 tax increases passed by voters would have sated the California Legislature’s appetite for additional revenue. But proposals are already circulating for potential new tax increases in this new year. Legislators would be better advised to see how much they collect from Prop. 30 before pursuing additional monies from Californians.Proposals are focusing on Prop. 13, the landmark 1978 tax-limitation measure that has undergirded the state’s prosperity since then. Prop. 13 limited property taxes to 1 percent of assessed value plus annual increases of up to 2 percent of the tax bill. When a property changes ownership, the new owner pays 1 percent of the newly assessed value.

GOP still relevant to California’s fiscal future – Many political pundits would have us now believe that Republicans are as relevant to California politics as fantasy football is to the NFL. To the contrary, there is an important role for the GOP in Sacramento and throughout the state this next legislative session.California voters, notwithstanding historic reluctance to approve higher taxes, passed Proposition 30 in November. They did so believing the promise that the projected additional revenue would help plug the budget gap and save public education from dramatic cuts.

Tom McClintock just said ‘no’ to ‘cliff’ solution – Never one to build bridges, Rep. Tom McClintock has spent the better part of 30 years in office deriding the government that gives him his paycheck.But as he showed last week, his political machine of one has gained compatriots among the shrunken but more conservative band of Republicans representing California in the House. That doesn’t bode well for California as it tries to get back some of the money it sends to Washington, and certainly not for the Sierra district McClintock represents.McClintock wasn’t among the hard-liners who openly challenged House Speaker John Boehner’s leadership when the new Congress convened last week. But he did join several of them for a press event shortly after the November election in Washington, D.C., offering his election analysis and prescription for the Republican Party.

Gun-control worries draw 6,000 to Ontario gun show – There are some Americans who believe there are too many firearms in the United States, and there are those like the thousands who attend events like Crossroads of the West Gun Show.”We have a Second Amendment which says `the right to keep and arms shall not be infringed.’ Infringed means you don’t mess with it,” said customer Patrick Hill of Menifee.Crossroads of the West is a frequent event at the Ontario Convention Center. When the show is town, thousands gather to peruse or buy any of myriad firearms such as a vintage Remington shotgun, a Ruger Redhawk revolver, Glock semi-automatic pistol or a modern AR-15-style rifle.

Saturday’s show, however, was Crossroads’ first in Ontario since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in December. The gunman who perpetrated that mass killing shot and killed 20 children and six women at the Newtown, Conn., campus after killing his mother and before ending his rampage by suicide.

California gun sales have risen, gun injuries have decreased – California has millions more guns than it did 10 years ago. It also has thousands fewer gun injuries and deaths each year.Those are two simple facts that, depending on whom you ask, have everything or nothing to do with each other.Last month’s horrific Connecticut school shooting has reignited the debate over gun control in California, a state with some of the nation’s strictest gun laws. State legislators will likely take up additional gun law proposals later this year, ranging from further limits on ammunition purchases to requiring regular background checks for gun owners.

Here is Dan Walter’s of the Sacramento Bee about the start of the California Legislative session: